Generally, the landing gear or landing gears of an aircraft are housed in a gear compartment situated in a reserved space, named gear bay, situated within the flanks of the bottom part of the fuselage and which may extend to a part of the wing.
This compartment plays a dual role according to whether the aircraft is in flight or on the ground.
During flight, the compartment isolates the gear from the aerodynamic flows so as to improve the performance of the aircraft.
On the ground, it has the role of transmitting the loads induced by the landing gear to the structure of the fuselage.
Currently, the parts constituting the landing gear are linked to the fuselage via its skin in rigid zones, and/or to the roof of the landing gear compartment constituting the limit between the pressurized zone (cabin) and the unpressurized zone of the fuselage.
In aircraft structures of the prior art, during movement of the aircraft along the ground, the loads coming from the wheels are transmitted to the bearings of the landing gear joints.
As these joints are linked to the skin of the aircraft fuselage and are also linked to the roof of the landing gear bay, it is the skin and the bay that transmit the loads induced by the landing gear to the fuselage structure.
On account of this, the zones concerned of the skin and of the bay are required to be reinforced in order not to undergo excessive deformations.
In particular, the bay roof has to bear the local torsional moment applied to the bay roof by the stay.
Furthermore, at present, on account of their structure and their fastening, the landing gears of an aircraft are mounted very early in the assembly chain of the aircraft. Thus, they generally cannot be tested independently.
Furthermore, the landing gear is very dependent upon the structure of the compartment. There is thus currently very little flexibility regarding the mounting of the landing gear.
In addition, other objects, desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.